History of the Opioid Epidemic

Twenty seconds is all it took to kill 19-year-old Dustin Manning. His devastated parents,said the toxicology report found he had taken a toxic mix of heroin and fentanyl, a synthetic opioid so powerful it's fatal.”the amount of fentanyl in his body was equivalent to 3 grains of salt. Less than an hour later, at 6:53am, another phone call was placed to 911. Half a mile down the road, 18-year-old, Joseph Abraham was found slumped on his floor by his parents. He had no pulse. According to both sets of parents Dustin and Joseph hadn't been in touch in recent years, yet it appears that the pill wrappings were identical. This tragic story was found on fox 8. Could this have been prevented if the healthcare industry had done more to prevent opioids from being so convenient to the public from getting them so easy?

Let's start with what is an opioid and opioid is an substance that acts on opioid receptor, the nervous system, to produce morphine like effects. The misuse of and addiction to opioids including pain relievers, heroin, and synthetic opioids such as fentanyl is a serious national crisis that affects public health as well as social and economic welfare. Sure there may be some pros such as *they were called the “wonder drug” *They were a louse epidemic *They were prominent pain relievers

But there is always the horrible truth behind opioids such as… * There are so many being prescribed * At least 90 americans a day die from an opioid overdose * The current opioid epidemic is the deadliest drug crisis in American history. In 1889 the Bayer CO. started production of a synthetic opioid,Heroin, on a commercial scale. From its first trials it was considered the wonder drug and as addicts discovered its effects could be amplifying by injecting it.

World War II was a turning point for physicians treating pain as doctors worked to treat severely injured soldiers.opened Anesthesiologists "nerve block clinics" in the 1950s and 1960s to manage pain without having to resort to surgery, according to a history published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 2003. In 1998, Purdue Pharma created a video promotion called "I Got My Life Back." It followed six people who suffered from chronic pain and were treated with OxyContin.

Did you know Enough opioids are prescribed in the United States each year to keep every man, woman and child on them around the clock for one month. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CMS) report that for chronic non-cancer pain, opioid dependence occurs in 26 percent of patients using them. One out of every 550 patients started on opioid therapy has died of opioid-related causes a median of 2.6 years after their first opioid and at least 90 americans die daily from an opioid overdose.

The current opioid epidemic is the deadliest drug crisis in American history. Overdoses, fueled by opioids, are the leading cause of death for Americans killing roughly 64,000 people last year, more than guns or car accidents, and doing so at a pace faster than the H.I.V. epidemic did at its peak.

How do you confront an epidemic that has claimed more lives than HIV/AIDS crisis at its peak? How do you counteract a system that incentives the flow of prescription painkillers from doctors to patients and ends up getting 3 million americans addicted each year? And how do you reverse surging demand for prescription opioids’ illegal substitutes, which are more damaging and toxic but far cheaper and easier to obtain? You could start like President Trump declared the opioid crisis a “public health emergency” now this is a step in the right direction but what we need is the “Ryan White Care Act” which is an act of the United States Congress and is the largest federally funded program in the United States for people living with HIV/AIDS. The act sought funding to improve availability of care for low-income, uninsured and underinsured victims of AIDS and their families.

For the opioid epidemic, such as additional funding would allow more people to receive medication-assisted treatment (MAT), which mimics opioids but less addictive potential and can wean addicts off their dependence. And it would prevent as many overdoses and deaths

• 33,000 people die for opioid overdoses in 2015 according to The center for disease control and prevention.
• 1 to 3 americans were prescribed opioids in 2015 So “4 out of this class would have been on opioids Just think about that
• So can the healthcare industry do more to combat the opioid crisis?
• To answer this question I have provided with the benefits of opioids * the harmful effects of opioids and ultimately concluded WITHOUT A DOUBT THEY CAN AND MUST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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